Working with Tools
My last module was about construction and fabrication basics. In challenge one was building a wood sandwich, to be able to build a wood sandwich you had to learn how to use different tools to build. This was my first experience using the tools that we had to use for the sandwich. Before we started doing all the building I was feeling nervous and I thought it was so easy to put screws in two pieces of wood. The feeling and the thought that I had before we started the building now is different to how I felt after finish and during the building. While we were building the first tool we had to put the nail in the wood with the hammer it took me time to put it in the wood it took strength to but the nail in, I thought it was fun and I felt confident with no worries.
In challenge two we had to design, measure, paint, and built for this challenge I was excited to built a birdhouse when I was little I wanted to built a birdhouse. Before we started the building I thought this was a difficult and that it was gonna take a lot of time, I felt excited and happy. First we all design the bird house then after picking which one we wanted, we had to cut the wood with a machine, we painted the wood so we use some art skills, then we had to glue them together, and it helps our community with the birds. After doing this challenge and during the challenge I thought it was easy to make a birdhouse and that I should make one in the future.

For our last module me and my group did engineering, the bridge. Me and my group started with one design and threw the project we changed it because we felt it needed to improve so that it could hold more weight. At first we were going to make it flat, but then after looking at the wining bridges we decided we could make it better and used triangles instead. we were making different poles , triangles, and tried to add the hight too. Half way threw the project our bridge was accidentally, and forced us to start all over again . When we started over again we had to work a bit faster wich I think might have been rushed to finish our bridge. Even with this we still finished and it was okay. I feel like it we could have had more time but we still did it and I feel good that we did.

For me this module was one of the modules that needed a lot of creativity and thought put into it. For example me and my group we started with one design at first, but then found a better idea and then changed it. For this module we also had to be very flexible sot that we could work better, faster, and still have room for improvement.

Over all just all modules need a lot of creativity and flexibility. Those are very important so that you can always make your module better and have more ideas with all of the people working with you in every module.

~Gisel

Sophia Niave

What is Creativity?

For me creativity is when you express your imagination into a project. You give away what you feel and how you will illustrate it. It’s imagination coming from your mind and just letting it out so the whole world can see it.  The actual definition is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. The root word of it is ‘to grow’; I don’t understand why creativity means to grow; it probably means to grow because you grow with more creativity.

How do I use creativity?

Creativity can be used at any time and by anyone. It’s their way to show the real them that they had within them. It helps them figure out what they should do next. Maybe it will end up being a project they would want to work on, but only if they want to. I use it for fun, I would just want to have my time passed by just creating and it would make part of my life not just sitting down and doing nothing.

How does it help in engineering?

Engineering is one of the fun activities people do, including me. But how do you use creativity while engineering? No matter what, creativity comes first in the process no matter what because your creativity came from an idea you had and just want to do it. Engineering is the part when you want to make your idea live, you just want to make that product stick out for everyone to see. Plus, creativity can be used during any part of the process, even when your engineering, because you would be creative and could customize your product and much more stuff.

Why is it important?

It is important because it would be one of the things you’ll need in life to be successful, to be successful you’re going to have to show what your interests are. It’s amazing what you can find when you show what you love to other people, they would help you on finding the perfect career for you. Also, is not only for future use, but is also for yourself, because when you find your true self, it would help you a lot to see who you were really meant to be.

Honestly, I loved this subject from the very beginning when you start something new. You always have to have the ideas about your necessities and encouragements. It ends up being the subject you’ve been  interested in the most, not only because it’s helpful, but it’s also they joy it brings you. So every time I start something new, I always think about the following quote “Design is not a thing you do. It’s a way of life.”

Enalisa Blackman
In 8th grade we get to explore 3 pathways, Biomedical, Engineering, and Media technology. So far, I have done mediatech and engineering, and soon biomed. In the engineering pathway, we built a bridge out of toothpicks to see how many grams the bridge could hold. I also did the mediatech module and we made a pinhole camera and tried to develop a picture.
At first, I didn’t want to do the engineering module because I felt that it was so irrelevant to life, and I just didn’t want to do it. But, majority rules, so we did it. Doing the engineering module changed my perspective on engineering, engineering is everything, everywhere. I learned that engineering is a very important aspect to life and that without we wouldn’t be the society we are today.
After the engineering module, I did the mediatech module. I was looking forward to the mediatech module. During the module, our project was to make a pinhole camera that could potentially produce an actual image. Doing this module, I found that I really liked it because it brought out the creative part of me, which I really liked it. The idea of taking pictures from different points of views, really sparked me inside. Mediatech is important, commercials and ads and shows, all that great stuff comes from people in the mediatech field. I haven’t done the biomedical module but I am looking forward to it.
Choosing a pathway right now would definitely be hard for me because everything I have done in each module has been great. My biggest goal in choosing a pathway is choosing something that will help people in the future. I feel that regardless of the pathway I choose I will help someone, but I want to help someone in the biggest, most efficient way possible. My pathway so far would be… biomed because of the fact that I could potentially save someone’s life. What better way to live your own life than doing everything you can to save someone else’s. To ensure their happiness in a life well deserved and spent is all I could ever want to do.

PLTW.  So many things to do in that class.  I enjoy it a lot.  It’s a very fun class. This class is a class where you can do a lot of hands on things.  You practice what you can do when you choose your pathway.

Engineering is my favorite thing to do in this class.  I enjoy doing a lot of hands on  activities and practicing engineering here, it’s very fun.This pathway can lead to so many things when you are older.  You can practically become anything since EVERYTHING has something to do with engineeringI love this pathway and I think I may choose this first.  But of course I cannot forget media tech.

Media tech is very cool too.  It is the kind of pathway for those who love technology and want to do a lot of video-making and picture taking and all that kind of stuff.  Media Tech was my first module and it was cool and all but I don’t think it’s for me.  There isn’t anything bad to it but I don’t think I’m cut out for that.

Bio-Med, I have not tried but I really want too.  It’s like a combination of engineering and medicine sort of stuff.  I actually still haven’t done this pathway but I really am looking forward to doing it.

PLTW in general is a great class. It’s the class that you can be free in using your imagination. I enjoy it a lot and it’s a free class.  I enjoy it and I hope that this is a class that will lead me to something great soon!

Hi there,

I’m here to tell you guys about construction and fabrication basics. It sounds complicated, right? Maybe kind of boring? Well, it’s not. Unlike mechanical systems, it involves making your own pieces, to make your own main piece. You have to draw it out first, make it creative. Part two involved making a birdhouse. It was a lot easier than we thought it’d be. Part one had taught us how to use the tools and materials, and what materials we needed.

Then we had to think about the layout of our bird house. What we needed to know. What kind of bird was it for? small? Large? What did its nests look like? How would the bird get in? It took us a couple tries to get it.

We decided to not make our birdhouse so traditional.

After all, we wanted to be creative. What we didn’t take into consideration was the strength of our design. the top was too weak to support our entire birdhouse for long. We never hung it up. I really can’t give you any instructions for this challenge. It’s all about your creativity. I guess that’s the main thing im trying to say to you. to succeed in this module, or any modules, you need to keep trying; don’t give up, and be prepared for failure. It sounds harsh when I say it like that, but it’s true. You have to fail to really succeed.

The future. That is all we think about, especially about technology in the future. Recently, in PLTW, my group made a video about technology in the future.

When people hear “future technology”, they think flying cars and holographic phones. In reality the future is the day of tomorrow, how the technology of tomorrow can help us in our daily lives, make it easier for us to live. Yes, maybe in the future we will have floating cars, but we need to make some sort of technological device that will help us now.

The purpose of the video was to come up with an invention that might be fictional to us now, but it can help our daily lives. My group thought about a lot of ideas like an automatic seatbelt, we did some research and figured out that they used to be put into cars, but then they stopped manufacturing them, because people didn’t like the seatbelt. We came through a lot of struggles, when trying to figure out our ideas. We were making things complicated, we wanted this invention to be able to apply to anyone, then we started asking ourselves if people that are less fortunate can get these things. We actually figured that the future technology doesn’t have to apply to everyone, it just has to apply to the majority.

Public restrooms. Mostly everyone has been in one, and they usually stink. We decided to “invent” an air vent that could sense the bad smell and dispense febreeze. So, in all, this module made us think about inventions that we could make with future technology, to make our lives, easier.

Hello my name is Leslie Morales, and today I am going to talk about a module that I enjoyed doing with my team members. The main idea of doing modules is to get to learn more about the pathways at our school. The available pathways at my  school are Bio-Med, Media-Tech, and Engineering. The module I enjoyed doing the most was the prosthetic module, which is in the Bio-Med pathway.

 

I enjoyed doing this module because it was fun and it was challenging at the same time. It was challenging because we had to make a prosthetic leg and it had to be actual size, so that a person could actually test it out. It was also challenging because we only had the materials that were in the classroom. It was also difficult because when we tried to walk with the prosthetic leg, the leg will just stay on the floor. So to fix that problem we had added a rope. We drilled two holes at the front of the leg and at the back of the leg. We put the rope into the holes and tied the rope around her leg and her waist. The module was fun because I had the opportunity to actually make a prosthetic leg.

We had failed many times in this module, but we didn’t give up, and since we didn’t give up the prosthetic leg worked.

By: Leslie Morales

Carolina Vazquez
What’s the purpose of PLTW? In my opinion, it helps us pick our pathway and experience all of those pathways to see what we enjoy doing. We have three major options: Media tech, Bio med, and engineering. These three pathways are what you take in high school. But how do you know which pathway to pick?. That’s where PLTW comes in. In this class we have the opportunity to study and experience all three pathways. I have had two “pathway” experiences, Engineering and media tech.
Media tech is where you share information to the world right at your fingertips. You create videos and take pictures and you send a message to everyone. Whether it’s to vote for someone or to make you buy a new xbox, the possibilities are endless really. I didn’t really absolutely hate it, but I just felt like it was not me. I don’t like being on a computer for hours and hours at a time, and that’s what you do all the time in this field. That’s not something I enjoy.
Meanwhile,engineering, is probably the most amazing pathway in my mind. It involves making things, I like to call it tinkering: playing around with things and just make your imagination come to life. I’ve always liked engineering. I remember when something at my house was broken or something need a screw etc,I would always want to fix it. I’m like my dad’s right hand man when he fixes things. And I feel like I still do that. But construction and fabrication is only the beginning of engineering. These many different types that I still have to learn.
This class has taught me, or at least gave me, a thought of what I want to become in the future. An engineer, that’s what I want to be and I know that now because of this class.

Screen Printing

 

Hi. My name is Mayrin S. and my blog is about Screen Printing. Screen Printing is awesome. In my PLTW class my group decided to screen print. At first it was really hard but in the middle of our module it was really fun. We are still not finished but so far so good.

First you start with a design that you want to print on a shirt. The shirt has to be another color no black shirts. So then you have to make your design in a white paper. Then when you’re finished you should make a copy of it on a copy machine (optional or make it the hard way). Then you put in a bucket that has this kind of liquid that makes the drawing disappear in the paper instead of the shirt. Then you put something on top to keep the light from going in. You leave it there for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Right now my group is there and we just need a shirt to put the design on. Thank you.